


Let's Get this Party Started

by JoMouse



Series: Imagine Sterek Events [11]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Awkward Flirting, Christmas In July | Christmas Out Of Season, Christmas Party, Don't copy to another site, M/M, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:33:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25577362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: Stiles is co-owner of a party planning company and has been hired to do a Christmas themed birthday party - in July. Now he just has to find real Christmas trees - in July.Enter Derek Hale of Hale Family Farms.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Imagine Sterek Events [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586374
Comments: 28
Kudos: 198
Collections: A Very Sterek Summer fest 2020, Another Present Under the Tree





	Let's Get this Party Started

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and salutations!
> 
> Here I am back again. This is written for Day 3 of [A Very Sterek Summer](HTTP://averystereksummer.tumblr.com) with the theme "We Like to Party" and also for [Imagine-Sterek's Another Present under the Tree](HTTP://imagine-sterek.tumblr.com) event for the theme "Christmas Decorations".
> 
> Big awesome thanks to my amazing beta [Marie](HTTP://quietzap.tumblr.com) for her speedy looking over of this fic! 
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow with another fic!
> 
> xx-Joey
> 
> Don't know 'em. Don't own 'em. Don't show 'em.

“Good afternoon, you’ve reached ‘We Like to Party’ Party Planning,” Stiles said into the phone, immediately opening up a new file on the computer in front of him. “You read about us in the Beacon Gazette? Excellent.” He flipped over to the Google calendar. “What date were you thinking about for your party?”

The rest of the conversation went like the dozens they got daily at the business he’d started with Lydia Martin during summers in college until it became successful enough to be their full-time jobs after graduation. He was in charge of the scheduling and the business details while Lydia normally planned the actual parties. Ever since the article covering the Mayor’s Inauguration Ball, their business had increased to the point where they were looking to hire someone else to handle the phone calls and scheduling while Stiles moved into actual planning.

He stared at the five new parties he’d taken calls for that day and called Lydia into his office. She leaned in the doorway, smiling at the post-it notes that were already covering the desk and the five binders that were stacked next to him. “So, we have two sweet sixteens, one quinceañera, one retirement party, and one Christmas in July 50th birthday party,” he told her.

“Christmas in July?” she asked with a quirked eyebrow as she shuffled the binders, taking the quinceañera and both birthday parties. “You can handle that one and it looks like the retirement party is for one of your dad’s deputies so I know you’d like to be involved with that.”

With that, she left the office and Stiles knew she’d start working immediately while he stared at the two binders left on his desk, double-checking the calendar for the dates and times of the preliminary consultation appointments for both parties. Using another post-it, he attached that information to the front of each binder before adding notes on what he thought the clients might enjoy. 

He was just finishing up when Lydia stuck her head back into the office. “You going out with us tonight?” she asked and Stiles shook his head.

“Dad’s got tonight off. We’re going to have dinner and catch up,” he told her and she wiggled her fingers in farewell as Stiles gathered his own stuff and left the office, locking up behind himself before heading down the stairs and crossing the street to where he’d parked his Jeep.

Stiles’ first appointment the next day was the Christmas in July party and he knew he was in trouble as soon as he pulled up in front of the house. It was only a few blocks over from Jackson Whittemore’s house and made his look like a cabin in the woods. Although that meant money wasn’t an option and they’d probably make a hefty profit, it also meant the demands might be high and hard to obtain.

An older woman dressed in jeans and a shirt covered with palm trees answered the door, a smile on her face and a drink in her hand, despite it only being ten in the morning. “You must be from the party planners,” she greeted. “I’m Susanna Fourre, but you can call me Sunny. Mimosa?” 

“No, thank you, ma’am. I’m Stiles Stilinski from ‘We Like to Party’.” He followed her inside and she led him to a large sitting room decorated with a million tchotchkes and Stiles gave the maid moving through the room a sympathetic look.

Once they were settled, Sunny launched right into her plans for the party which were extensive. “Now, there should be at least five Christmas trees. As you can see the lower level of the house is quite large and I’d like one in the foyer, two in the living room, one in the dining room and one on the back patio.” Stiles was nodding and making notes; he’d been up late the night before pricing out realistic artificial trees online and knew he’d be able to get what she was looking for without too much trouble. “And of course, they must be real.”

“Real?” Stiles choked out.

“Of course, nothing beats the smell of fresh pine filling the house,” she told him and then continued discussing the requirements for each tree and Stiles realized there wouldn’t be a whole lot of planning for him to do for this party, but rather organization.

His head was spinning as he left the house after another hour and a half of listening to Sunny excitedly explain each and every thought she had for the party. He knew that he would be able to pull off a majority of them easily but he was stuck on where he was going to get five large live Christmas trees in the middle of July. 

Scrubbing his hands through his hair, he climbed into his Jeep and drove back to his apartment, ready for a night of research and Red Bull. He pulled into his assigned parking spot at the same time as the great looking guy from upstairs was pulling into his own spot. They shared greetings as they normally did and then Stiles noticed the door of his pickup for the first time. 

“Hale Family Farms,” he read aloud watching as his neighbor hesitated in his steps and turned to nod. “You don’t happen to sell Christmas Trees, do you?”

“In December,” he answered, waiting for Stiles to catch up and holding out a hand. “Derek Hale.”

“Stiles Stilinski,” he responded, shaking his hand and trying not to dwell on the warmth of it and the brush of calluses against his palm. “You wouldn’t happen to have five trees between the five and twelve feet available a little earlier than December, would you?”

His brows narrowed and his voice was suspicious as he asked, “How early?”

“Next weekend?” he asked more than stated, his shoulders dropping when Derek barked out a laugh.

“Oh, wait, you’re serious.” He schooled his face into something more solemn but the corners of his mouth kept twitching and there were crinkles by his eyes that gave away the mirth he was feeling at Stiles’ expense. “Why do you need Christmas trees in July?” He closed his eyes and sighed. “You’re celebrating Christmas in July?”

“Not me. I work for a party planning company and one of our clients-”

Derek held up a hand. “Say no more.” He dug his hands into his pockets and looked up at the sky, his head tilting back and forth a couple of times. “I have time the day after tomorrow to explore the preserve to see if we can find anything that will fit your request. We might be able to do a five-foot or two from our controlled grow but anything bigger will have to be in the wild.”

“And your family won’t mind?” Stiles asked.

“I’m the only one left,” Derek said. “It’s my property.” Stiles opened his mouth to apologize but Derek shrugged and continued into the building. “Meet me here at noon, day after tomorrow.”

“You got it,” Stiles said but Derek was already through the door and into the stairwell.

Two days later, Stiles stood in the parking lot, a cooler full of sandwiches from Beacon Hills Deli in his hand. He figured if they were going out at noon that maybe Derek hadn’t eaten yet, so he could at least try to soften him up with a bribe of the best hoagies in town. He glanced around the lot but Derek’s truck wasn’t there and he’d just about decided he’d been blown off when there was a honk and he saw Derek pulling into the lot.

Stiles pulled open the door and started laughing when he saw the paper bag with the Beacon Hills Deli logo on the bag. “Great minds,” he said, holding up the cooler. 

“At least we won’t starve,” Derek told him and waited until he was buckled in before pulling out of the lot. “We can walk through the preserve and mark the trees today and then I can deliver them when you need them. You said this weekend but what day is the party?”

“It’s Saturday night. We don’t usually take jobs this late but it’ll be good for the company,” Stiles explained. “We’ve been going nuts since the paper wrote about us and need to hire someone to help out in the office. And I’m babbling,” he said when he noticed Derek’s eyebrows shooting up into his hair. “So, the party is Saturday night and the wife and her husband are going to be out of the house Friday night until the party so if you can deliver them Friday…” He trailed off when he realized he was on a roll again. “Please deliver Friday night. I’ll give you the address.”

Derek nodded and the rest of the drive was mostly in silence. Stiles hadn’t been to the Preserve since hiking with his mother when he was a small child. The place had been open to the public then but had been closed off as private property after a fire within the borders had wiped out an entire family. Stiles’ brain stuttered at that thought and he looked over at Derek and thought back over his comment, his mind working as he put two and two together and came up with he was an asshole.

He started to apologize but remembered how much he hated when people acted weird when they found out about his mom, so he just reached out to fiddle with the radio, jerking his hand back when Derek swatted at him. “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.”

“No way! You watch Supernatural?!” Stiles squealed just as the road turned bumpy and he looked around at the dirt track they’d turned onto that didn’t even look wide enough for the truck but Derek drove it with confidence.

They pulled over a few minutes later, getting out of the truck and grabbing the sandwiches, settling on a large tree trunk to eat and drink water while Derek told him about the Preserve and the types of trees they would find growing there. “We have a lot of sugar pines and a few Ponderosa which are popularly copied for artificial trees.”

“So, those are probably the ones that the Fourres will be interested in,” Stiles observed.

“Tell me more about the party,” Derek said, sounding genuinely interested. “Are you going to need garland and the such? Usually I have a company come in a few weeks before the season to gather boughs from trees that won’t make it as actual trees to create them but I might be able to figure out how…”

“I’m not going to put you through all of that. The trees should be enough, the focal points. Just enough to suggest Christmas but not become tacky.” He pulled the binder for the party out of his backpack and flipped through a few pages to the notes he’d made when he’d met with Sunny. “Shit, she does want some kind of garland for the fireplace. It would need to be about five or six feet.”

“If I can’t do it, I’m sure I’ll find someone who can,” Derek told him, crumbling up the wrapper from his hoagie and put it back in the cooler. “Ready?”

Stiles flipped through the pages in his binder before slapping it shut. “As I’ll ever be,” he responded.

They started to hike through the woods, mostly on trails but veering off a few times when they spotted the top of a tree in the distance. It took them almost four hours before they found all five trees and Derek tied ribbon around the boughs while making notes on the maps app in his phone. While they walked, they talked about everything that came to mind, mostly the holidays and Stiles smiled as Derek shared stories of Christmases when he was a kid.

“They were a big deal. The entire family would get together for days of celebrating. First, we’d come out here and choose a tree, never taking one from the lots because they were grown to be perfect. We liked ones that were a little lopsided.” He chuckled to himself. “My mom was like that. Always bringing home those things that no one else wanted. We even had a three-legged dog for awhile.” 

He got lost in his own thoughts and Stiles just walked behind him as they made their way through the woods. He was glad Derek was with him because he had no idea where they were going and would probably have gotten himself lost if he was on his own. When they reached the tree stump, Stiles suggested they eat the rest of the sandwiches before heading back and Derek readily agreed.

“What made you decided to keep up the family business?” Stiles asked, rubbing at the back of his neck and crossing his fingers he wasn’t getting too personal.

“I almost didn’t, but the day I was going to sell the Preserve and the tree farm, I took a walk out here and I found this stump.” He ran his hand over the surface reverently. “When I was five, there was a storm and lightning struck this tree, the oldest in the preserve. It had fallen with a crash so loud that it sent all of us flying from our beds, convinced the world was ending.”

Stiles chuckled, picturing a smaller version of Derek freaking out but it was made all the funnier because he was imagining a small child with his impressive eyebrows and mountain man beard. He waved a hand to avoid explaining when Derek turned to him with a question in his eyes. “Continue. Continue.”

“The entire family in our pajamas and the pouring rain came hiking out into the Preserve. I carried my little sister on my back for most of the way until we found this stump, still smoking from the strike and the tree had fallen that way,” he gestured to the trail they had started their adventure on, “splitting the forest down the middle. My mother made us all gather around the stump, join hands and say a prayer, for lack of a better term, to the spirit of the tree. She wanted us to thank it for protecting us and providing for us. I thought it was silly but when we were done, the rain stopped suddenly and the sky filled with fireflies.” He choked up on the last words and ran a hand over his face.

“It was magic,” Stiles said. “Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.”

“Exactly. I stopped believing in magic when my family was killed but then I came out here and found the stump. I sat on it and thought about my family. Said my goodbyes to them in a way I hadn’t been able to at their funerals. I ended up falling asleep and when I woke up, the moon was full and bright in the sky and fireflies filled the air directly above me. I knew then that I couldn’t sell this place. This place is as much my family as the people were.”

“That’s really beautiful,” Stiles told him.

“Thanks.” 

They cleaned and packed up their things, climbing into the truck and heading back to the apartments. Stiles had a long night ahead of him rush ordering the perfect decorations for the trees. He’d been struggling with the small tree for the back patio but now had some inspiration. As he was climbing out of the truck, a thought occurred to him. “Hey, do you want to come with me to the party? I can put you down as a consultant.”

Derek hesitated, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “You know what? Yes. I’d love to come and be a consultant for the party. Do I get paid?”

“Free food and drink. If you’re a good boy, I’ll share my Uber with you.” He never drove to jobs like these, not wanting to take up a parking space with his old Jeep.

“I’m never good,” Derek said with a lift of his eyebrows and something warm zinged through Stiles and he had to duck his head to hide the warmth blooming through his face.

“Good to know. See you Friday for the delivery.” Stiles closed the truck door and watched Derek pull out of the parking lot, not heading inside until he couldn’t see him anymore.

Friday night came way too quickly and Stiles was ready to pull his hair out but he’d managed to amass everything he needed and have it brought to the Fourre’s house. He used the key Sunny had given him and let himself in, smiling at the note left on the kitchen island telling him to help himself to the food and drink in the refrigerator. 

He’d managed to separate the boxes of decorations, setting them up in each room where the tree they would go in would be displayed. He opened the box of ribbon edged with wire to hold its shape and began weaving it through the stair railing in the foyer. He was just finishing tying off a bow following a YouTube tutorial when the doorbell rang.

He turned and pulled it open, grinning at Derek standing there looking like a lumberjack with one burlap-wrapped tree on the ground behind him. A large man stood at the other end of the tree and waved when Stiles looked at him. “This is my friend, Boyd, he’s here to help.”

“Welcome, Boyd!” Stiles called. “Which one is this?” Stiles asked as Boyd and Derek hoisted the tree and brought it inside. 

“Purple ribbon,” Derek said. They had marked each tree with a different ribbon to make it easier to place them.

“Foyer,” Stiles said, consulting his binder. “Right in that corner there.”

Stiles helped them get the tree in the stand and unwrap it before the three of them headed back outside for the next one. It took them just over an hour to get all of the trees standing in their respective places and Stiles was relieved to see they all looked as good as he’d imagined. He snapped photos to send to Lydia who sent back a happy emoji so his shoulders relaxed just a bit more.

Derek came back in with his arms full of garland and Stiles squealed. “You did it!” 

“Hope it turned out alright.”

They worked together to get it hung while Boyd gathered together all of the burlap and twine to take it back out to the truck. He returned with a broom and swept up any stray needles before clapping Derek on the back. “You coming to the bar? Erica’s looking forward to seeing you.”

Stiles watched Derek out of the corner of his eye as he affixed a ribbon to the end of the garland where it attached to the mantle. Derek was doing the same at the other end as he glanced around the room. “I think I might stay and help Stiles. I’m sure Erica will forgive me.”

“Probably not, but I’ll distract her,” Boyd said and Derek backhanded him in the gut, laughing. “Nice meeting you, Stiles.”

“You, too, Boyd. Thanks for the help,” he said as Boyd let himself out. “You don’t have to stay if you have plans with your girlfriend.”

“Erica is Boyd’s girlfriend,” Derek told him. “Now, what’s next?” They stood back and Stiles let out a whistle. “Turned out alright.”

“Better than alright. You might not have to outsource for garland this year,” Stiles told him.

Derek held up his bandaged fingers and chuckled. “I’ll let someone else get poked.”

Stiles burst out laughing. “Okay, let’s get started on the Nutcracker tree in the foyer and then work our way through the rest in the house.”

“What about the one on the patio?” Derek asked.

Stiles didn’t want Derek’s help with that one so he just started unboxing nutcracker ornaments. They worked together to cover the tree with lights and nutcrackers in different styles and sizes. Crystal coated sugarplums hung throughout the tree to add some sparkle and finally a gold and silver filigree star for the top bough. Standing back, they grinned and high-fived before moving away to start on the next tree.

A knock at the door startled them and they exchanged a look. He hoped it wasn’t someone looking for Sunny and her husband and when he pulled open the door he was surprised to see Boyd standing there with two six-packs of beer and a leggy blonde carrying paper bags that smelled like Thai food.

“We came to help,” the blonde that he assumed was Erica said as she pushed into the house and bussed a kiss to Derek’s cheek as she found her way to the kitchen.

The three of them followed, Stiles gaping and Derek telling him to, “Get used to it,” with a squeeze to his shoulder.

After they ate and Stiles felt like he’d known the three of them for years rather than just one night, they split the trees between them. Derek and Stiles took the twelve-footer set up in the center of the living room. The theme for this one was silver and black and the decorations consisted of silver beads and tinsel and black bulbs. The topper was a silver “50” that sparkled from the LED lights wrapped around the branches.

While they worked on that, Boyd and Erica tackled the Snowman and Beach themed trees. They finished both of theirs before the twelve-footer was done. Erica tapped Stiles on the shoulder just as he adjusted a black bulb. “What about the one out back?” she asked.

“I’ll get that one,” Stiles told her and she nodded before moving onto poke through the other boxes of decorations that were scattered through the room.

It took until midnight for everything except the final tree to be finished. Stiles chased his three helpers out the door with a lot of thanks. Derek tried to argue, but Stiles told him to just be ready to go the next day at four so they could get here in time to meet the caterers. Derek hesitated at the door and Stiles physically shoved him out, laughing as he closed the door in his confused face.

As soon as he heard the trucks pull out of the driveway, he headed into the kitchen and pulled the bowl of cranberries out of the fridge while he started popping popcorn. He still had a long night ahead of him to finish the last tree, but he knew it would be worth it.

Stiles adjusted his tie and fiddled with his hair while Lydia fussed and applied makeup to the bags beneath his eyes. “You should’ve gotten more sleep.”

“I didn’t get home until nearly four, Lyds,” he argued. “The last tree took longer than I thought. We really need to hire more help and I need some kind of gift cards for Derek, Boyd and Erica for all the help they gave last night.”

“I have no idea who they all are but I agree,” she told him. She wasn’t coming to the party that night as she was going to be spending the evening at dance lessons for the birthday girl and her father for the quinceañera. “Now, behave yourself. The cleaning crew is all set to go dismantle everything at midnight.” The one thing they did splurge one was someone else to take care of cleaning up the parties and that night’s was scheduled to end at eleven. 

With those final instructions, she headed towards the door and let out a soft ‘oh’ when she opened it. “Stiles, there is a positively delicious man at your door,” she called and Stiles facepalmed as he grabbed his wallet, the binder, and his phone and hurried to save Derek from Lydia. 

She was gone by the time he got to the door and Derek was standing there looking uncertain. He was wearing a black suit with a blue shirt. He’d trimmed his beard until it was well-groomed stubble and Stiles saw dimples when he smiled at him. “You look great,” Derek said with a smile.

“I look like a burlap sack compared to you,” he countered.

“We’ll have to agree to disagree,” Derek told him and offered his arm. “Shall we go?”

Laughing, Stiles slid his arm through Derek’s and then tried to figure out how to lock the door with his other arm full. Derek grabbed the binder from him and held it while Stiles locked the door. They made it a few steps before it was too difficult to walk arm-in-arm and Stiles blushed when Derek switched to taking his hand and leading him downstairs.

“This is alright, yeah?” he asked when they got outside, the Uber Stiles had called just pulling up.

Stiles squeezed his hand and nodded. “More than.” They locked eyes, both of them looking away and blushing after a minute and Stiles felt like he was ten again with his first crush on a boy. It had been the paperboy who he would watch through the windows whenever he dropped off the paper before riding away on his bike. His father still teased him that was the only time he’d ever seen Stiles up before the sun.

Sunny and her husband greeted them at the door. Stiles was surprised when she bypassed him and started fussing over Derek. “My, my, Derek, you’ve gotten so big! I remember when you were just a little thing trying to convince your mom to let you have that paper route.”

“Paper route?” Stiles asked, squinting at Derek.

“That was a lifetime ago, Miss Sunny,” Derek said, pressing a kiss to her cheek and shaking her husband’s hand.

“Paper route?” Stiles repeated. “Where? When?”

They all looked at him strangely. “You must have been fifteen years old? It was before you could drive,” Sunny said. Stiles did the math in his head and shook it, there was no way Derek had been their paperboy, had been  _ the _ paperboy. “I think I have a picture of you around that age.”

Stiles chased after Sunny while Derek rubbed his hands over his face and followed more slowly. They passed the glass door to the patio and stepped into a study. Sunny pulled out an album and flipped through it. “Derek’s mother was such a good woman, a good friend for a lot of years. It was such a shame about the fire.” She stopped on a page and tapped the image and Stiles couldn’t even be surprised to see the cute paperboy he remembered smiling at the camera. “This is the right age, isn’t it, Derek?” They both looked up when there was no answer but Derek wasn’t in the room with them.

“Derek?” Sunny called and walked out of the room, Stiles following and seeing the door to the patio open. They started to head outside when Mr. Fourre called for Sunny from the kitchen. “Check on him, dear. I’m sure talking about his family is difficult.”

Stiles nodded and headed out onto the deck, closing the door behind him. Derek was standing in front of the tree Stiles had spent the entire night decorating. He watched as Derek reached out a hand and ran it over the reindeer made out of sticks and the cranberry/popcorn garland Stiles had spent over an hour stringing together. “It looks even better lit up,” Stiles said, moving forward to flip the power switch on the cord.

He’d forgone normal string lights for the tree and instead planted fiber optics throughout the branches. When they lit up, it looked like the lights were dancing around the trees, like fireflies. He’d been inspired by Derek’s story and he’d hoped that Derek would love it but he couldn’t tell from the stunned look on his face.

“The darker out it gets, the better the lights will look. That was the one reason I was hesitant to put a tree out here since the sun won’t go down until really late and the lights don’t show up very well but Sunny insisted and-” Stiles’ ramble was cut off by Derek grabbing him and pulling him into a hug. It took him a minute to untangle his arms to hug him back.

“This is the only tree I ever want in my house. Ever,” Derek whispered into his neck. “I’ll buy these decorations off you when this is all over.”

“They’re all yours, big guy,” Stiles said, patting his back. “Consider it thanks for all the help.”

“Stiles, the caterers are...oops…” Sunny called stepping onto the porch, covering her mouth with both hands, eyes squinting shut from the strength of the smile she was hiding. “Oooooh,” she cooed when they pulled apart, Derek taking Stiles’ hand.

Stiles gave himself a mental shake and slipped into profession mode, although he kept his hand in Derek’s. “Well, if the caterers are here, let’s get this party started,” he said, smiling as Sunny clapped her hands and Derek leaned in to press a kiss to Stiles’ cheek before they followed her inside.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'hi' on tumblr. I'm 'josjournal' over there!


End file.
